Can I automatically generate documentation from Description and Tip entries?

[joeljkp]

Is there a way to automatically generate documentation for a LV 6.1 VI from the Description and Tip fields for all the different nodes? Something like JavaDoc or something?

I've seen another note here on the board saying you can do it from within the VI using property nodes, but that seems like a somewhat convoluted way of going about it, especially for a large modular VI.

[EdDickens]

Actually, property nodes is the easiest way.

Just open a reference to your top level VI. From that reference, you can get all the Description and tip fields for that VI, and the name of all the sub-vi's so you can open references to to them and get all thier info, and references to all their subs and get their info.....

If you have sub-vi's you call dynamically, you'll have to point to these as though it was a top level or use an array to define your top level and dynamic VI's because it will not show up in the list as a sub-vi for the main application.

I used to have a tool that did this, but I can't seem to find it right now. It was fairly easy to build and didn't take too long. Just remember to close all those references.

Ed

[Greg_McKaskle2]

> Is there a way to automatically generate documentation for a LV 6.1 VI
> from the Description and Tip fields for all the different nodes?
> Something like JavaDoc or something?
>
> I've seen another note here on the board saying you can do it from
> within the VI using property nodes, but that seems like a somewhat
> convoluted way of going about it, especially for a large modular VI.

I think you might want to choose File>>Print...
The dialog lets you select which files to print, and the style of
printout, as panel user, as subVI user, or as author/code reviewer. If
you somehow want to do this programmatically, there are print methods on
the VI class. If one of these printouts has the info you want, you can
also send them to RTF and other formats ins
tead of the printer.

Greg McKaskle

[KellyH]

Also, the LabVIEW Help has step-by-step instructions for generating documentation for VIs. Here's an example:

Generating HTML Documentation for VIs, Templates, and Objects

You can import HTML files into most word processing applications, and you can use HTML files to create compiled help files.

Complete the following steps to generate HTML documentation for a VI, template, or object.

1. Open any VI, control, global variable, or template file and select File�Print to display the Print dialog box.
   
2. In the Select VIs page of the Print dialog box, select the file or files for which you want to generate HTML documentation.
   
3. Click the Next button to display the Print contents page.
   
4. Select the components you want to include in the documentation.
   
5. If you selected Custom, click the Next button to display the Custom details page and select the components you want to include in the documentation. Otherwise, continue to the next step.
   
6. Click the Next button to display the Page setup page.
   
7. Select the options to set the appearance of the documentation.
   
8. Click the Next button to display the Destination page.
   
9. Select HTML file.
   
10. Click the Next button to display the HTML page.
    
11. Select the options for the images.
    
12. Click the Save button to display a file dialog box. The dialog box prompts you to name the HTML and image files and select the directory where you want to save the files. The default name of any HTML documentation is the name of the VI with a .html extension.
    

You also can use the Easy Print VI Panel or Documentation VI or the Print VI to HTML method to generate VI documentation in HTML format programmatically.





This topic in particular links directly to the topics that describe how to use the methods to achieve the same thing programmatically.

If you have any feedback on the content of the LabVIEW Help, please let us know by emailing techpubs@ni.com

Thank you,
Kelly Holmes